• Sensex broods over eco ills,nears 40-mth low
• 30 MNCs get nod to bypass FIPB
• Maharashtra’s SEZ Bill faces Center hurdle
• Plan to remove 21 items from SME list on hold
• Govt clears 7 projects worth 5k cr
• India less ‘vulnerable’ to global crisis: IMF
• Beetle to enter India in October; Polo next year
• M&M in naval JV talks with BAE, Lockheed
• NPPA seeks action against Sun, Emcure & Franco
• Daiichi defers open offer for Zenotech Laboratories
• Sensex crashed to its lowest closing level in nearly 40 months on Tuesday, stoking fears that worse may be in store. Brokers blame the weakness on the latest bout of turmoil in global markets, exacerbated by problems in the domestic economy. The 30-share bellwether index ended Tuesday at 8,427.29, down 179.79 points, or 2.1%, over the previous close. This is the lowest close since November 10, 2005, when the index ended at 8,308.93. The 50-share NSE Nifty ended at 2,622.40, down 52.20 points, or 2%, over Monday—its lowest closing since November 10, 2008.
• According to sources, Govt has allowed 30 foreign firms waiting to get FIPB’s nod for making downstream investments to escape the board and make direct investment in downstream activities merely by informing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). But the company will be required to inform the board, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) and the secretariat for industrial assistance (SIA) about its investments within 30 days of funding the project. Govt had issued an instruction (Press Note 4) doing away with the FIPB approval for downstream investments last week but was silent on the fate of cases pending with the board. Nimbus Communications, DSR Realtors and Intertoll Consultants are some of the companies to have approached FIPB of late seeking its approval for making downstream investments. (ET)
• Maharashtra government’s SEZ Bill has once again run into trouble with Union commerce ministry objecting to the provision in the Bill that allows the state government to override all other laws of the state in case they conflict with the SEZ Act. The commerce ministry had cleared the Maharashtra Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and Designated Areas Bill in May last year but had refused to allow the state government to relax the labour laws in the SEZs. (BS)
• According to sources, Micro and small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will continue to enjoy exclusive manufacturing rights over 21 items such as PVC pipes, rolling shutters, steel furniture, padlocks, laundry soaps and utensils as govt has deferred its earlier plan to allow manufacturing of these items by large firms from April 1 as govt felt this would have exposed MSME’s to tough competition from large firms.
The advisory committee which examines the issue of reservation or de-reservation of manufacturing items from the MSME sector list on a continual basis is learnt to have decided against any de-reservation in 2009-10 due to the current economic downturn. (ET)
• Government has cleared 2 port projects and 5 highway projects with a total cost of Rs 5,220 crore to be executed jointly by private developers and various government agencies. The largest project by cost was in Tamil Nadu — four laning of Trivandrum-Krishnagiri part of national highway 66 at Rs 1,075 crore. (ET)
• According to a report titled ‘The implications of the global financial crisis for low-income countries’ released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India is classified to have “medium level” vulnerability from further external shocks like a drop in international trade and fall in remittances because of current global financial crisis. The report correlates between the downward revision in growth estimate and change in foreign exchange reserves in the last six months. Growth projection for India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been revised downwards by 2.8 percentage points to 5.1 per cent in 2009. Also in the last six months, reserves expressed in terms of months of imports have dropped to 8.8 per cent against earlier estimate of 9.7 per cent.(BS)
• Unfazed by the ongoing slump in auto sales, luxury car maker Volkswagen AG plans to launch the Beetle in India by October and the Polo hatchback by early next year. Volkswagen has stated that it has no plans to alter its decision to invest Rs3,600 crore in India. It further stated that it will start making the Polo in its Pune plant by January and launch it by March next year. Polo will be competitively priced with other cars in that category. While Polo will be made locally, Beetle will be brought in as completely built units. (Mint)
• According to sources, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is looking at defence sector as a strategic business interest and is looking to grow this business through big ticket global partnerships. It has already tied up with BAE for a land systems-specific JV and is reportedly talking to Lockheed Martin as well as BAE for a naval JV as well. M&M has already spun off its land and naval businesses into wholly-owned subsidiaries of Mahindra Defence Systems, its defence business vertical. It will offer 26% stake in both subsidiaries to global partners. (ET)
• According to sources, country’s drug pricing body, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), has recommended the drug quality regulator Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to take action against 3 companies- Sun Pharma, Franco Indian and Emcure Pharma, for allegedly changing the composition of some medicines while retaining their old brand names, which helped it dodge price controls thus allegedly misguiding consumers. NPPA is also learnt to have issued notices to these companies, asking them to explain the change in the price controlled composition and the price hike. (ET)
• According to sources, Daiichi Sankyo has deferred its open offer to acquire an additional 20% from public shareholders of Zenotech Laboratories as it is yet to get approval from SEBI. Daiichi Sankyo, the new owner of Ranbaxy, had offered Rs 113 per share, a price that has been rejected by minority shareholder groups of Zenotech. (ET)
